114 John 15:3-7 MAINTAINING A CLOSE FELLOWSHIP WITH JESUS Introduction: In our previous text Jesus began the Parable of The Grapevine. He used the vine to represent Himself. He used the husbandman to represent God the Father. He used the branches to represent those who had made profession of faith in Him. The dead branches represented those who had made a false profession of faith. They had the appearance of being Christians, but they had never been born again. They had never been saved. Jesus said that they would be cut off of the vine. Further, Jesus used the fruit-bearing branches to represent those who are truly saved. They have an inward spiritual life which came from Jesus Christ and they bear fruit for God. Jesus said that the saved must be pruned so that they would bear more abundant fruit. In our text today Jesus continues the parable. He gives a more detailed explanation how the parable applies to those who are truly saved. He uses the parable to make an appeal to His disciples to remain true to Him and His cause even after He departs from them and returns to heaven. I. The pruning which the disciples had already experienced V. 3, "Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you." The word "clean" as used here with reference to the grave vine means that they have already undergone some pruning. He said that they were clean through the word which He had spoken to them. They had sat under His teaching for about three or three and a half years. He had used His teaching to prune from their thoughts many mistaken ideas. For instance He had taught them that salvation is not obtained by keeping the Law of Moses. This was an idea that had been implanted in their thinking from their earlier childhood. Their fathers before them for many generations had taught that one must keep the Law of Moses in order to be saved. Jesus taught them that salvation is not obtained by keeping the law. It is obtained by repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ. By His teaching Jesus had pruned, or at least attempted to prune from their thinking, the idea that one can get to heaven by keeping the Old Testament law. Jesus had taught them that the old law system of worship through the temple at Jerusalem should be discontinued. He had organized a New Testament church and would soon give instructions for like churches to be established throughout the world. It was now God's will for God's people to worship through the New Testament church system and not through the Old Testament law system with its animal sacrifices. By His teaching Jesus had pruned, or at least had attempted to prune, from their lives the Old Testament system of worship. Jesus had taught them to live godly lives. He taught them to let their lights so shine before men that men would see their godly lives and glorify God which is in heaven. In other words, He pruned from their lives many dishonest and immoral ways of behaving. He cleaned up their conduct. Jesus taught them that He was not going to be crowned as king of Israel as they had expected Him to do. They had been taught all their lives that the Christ would proclaim Himself to be the king of Israel, establish Himself on the throne at Jerusalem and drive out the Gentile forces who had ruled over their land for many generations. It was hard for the disciples to get it through their head that this was not about to happen. Now that He had made it clear to them that He was about to return to heaven, they finally had to accept the truth about the matter. Jesus had pruned their hopes of Him being on the throne from their thinking. Jesus could now inform them that they had been effectively pruned and they were clean and ready to produce fruit for God. There was one great danger which loomed ahead of them. Jesus was well established as their leader and as long as He was present with them there was little danger that they would defect from His cause. But He was about to leave them. In fact, He would very soon be gone. And there was the grave danger that once their leader was gone, they would all scatter to the four winds and the church which He had established would disintegrate. That must not happen. II. The necessity of staying close to the Lord V. 4, "Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me." Jesus had promised them that even though He was about to leaven them, He would pray the Father and the Father would send them another leader in His stead. The Father would send the Holy Spirit upon the church to be the spiritual leader of the Church. In fact, it would be through the presence of the Holy Spirit that Jesus, Himself, would still be with them even though He would no longer be with them bodily. Through the presence of the Holy Spirit Jesus would continue to be the Spiritual Head of each New Testament church. That is why the Apostle Paul in the Book of Ephesians could later write that Jesus Christ is the Head of the Church. Jesus said that it was vital for those Christians not to scatter. It was vital for them to remain together in church capacity. It was vital for them to maintain a vital connection to Jesus and to His leadership through the Holy Spirit in the New Testament church capacity. Jesus said that when a grape branch is cut off from the grapevine, then it will soon wither and die. It cannot produce fruit. That is why it was important for every one of those disciples to main just as close a relationship with Jesus after He was gone from them as they had with Him while He was with them. V. 5, "I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." Recently Bro. Hughes used this verse in a BTC devotional. He pointed out to you then that without that vital connection with Christ the Christian can accomplish nothing. Any time a Christian produces fruit that is acceptable to God, it is because the power of the Lord is working through him. Without the power of God working through us none of us can accomplish anything worthwhile. I cannot successfully preach. You cannot successfully teach. We cannot successfully witness. We cannot successfully represent Bible truth. We cannot successfully win souls. We are powerless without the Lord. We must not just have the Lord working with us. We must have the Lord working in us and through us to others. III. The danger of becoming withered and being cut off In our next verse Jesus makes a statement that is difficult at first to understand. V. 6, "If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned." Some folks jump to a hasty conclusion and decide that Jesus is saying that those who are saved will lose their salvation if they are not careful. They say that Jesus here teaches that a Christian will lose his salvation if he is not faithful to maintain a close fellowship with Jesus. But a closer examination of what Jesus had already said will reveal that this is not at all what Jesus is saying. In John 3:16 Jesus had already said, "For God so loved the world that He gave His Only Begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Jesus had already said that the believer has everlasting life and would not perish. That means he will not lose his salvation. In John 5:24 Jesus had already said, "Verily, verily, I say into you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life." Jesus had already said that a believer not only has everlasting life, but He said that the believer would never come into condemnation. In John 10:27-29 Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any (man) pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no (man) is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." Literally, there is "none" (including the Devil himself) who can pluck the saved out of the hands of Jesus Christ nor out of the hands of God the Father. So in light of what Jesus had already said, we can know that He was not talking here about the saved losing their salvation. He had already said that is impossible. But in verse 6 Jesus does say that it is possible for one of the fruit-bearing branches to fail to abide in Himself, who is the True Vine. If Jesus is not talking about the believer losing his salvation, just what is He talking about? He is talking about the believer losing his power to produce much fruit for God. It is only through the power of the Lord that any believer can produce fruit for God so if the believer does not maintain a close fellowship with Jesus he will be unable to produce fruit. The child of God is not in danger of losing his salvation, but he is in danger of losing his effectiveness for God. Every child of God faces this danger. The fire that is spoken of in this verse does not mean that he would go into the fires of hell, but it does mean much of his works will be burned in the fires of judgment and he will receive no rewards for those works which burn up in judgment. In 1 Corinthians 3:13-15 reads, "Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire." On the other hand, the Christian who maintains a close fellowship with Jesus, heeding the words of Jesus and doing the will and work of Jesus will bear fruit for the Lord. According to what Jesus said in verse 5 he will bear much fruit for God. IV. The challenge for those disciples The challenge for those disciples was: Would they scatter and stop working for the Lord after Jesus left or would they maintain that same close fellowship which they had with Him before His crucifixion and ascension? If they scattered and stopped working for Jesus, then they would soon wither on the vine and dry up. They would become worthless to the Lord. They would become worthless to His cause. They would never lose their salvation, but they would be cut off from the spiritual nourishment and spiritual strength that comes from the Lord. On the other hand, if after Jesus departs from them, they will maintain a close fellowship with Jesus, they will continue to have His leadership. They will continue to have His power working through their lives. They will continue to bear fruit for God. The cause of Christ would prosper through them. Souls would be saved. Christians would be strengthened. Mission work would be carried on. Churches would be established. V. The challenge for us today There is a hymn that calls our attention to the great need for Christians today. It says, "Just a closer walk with Thee; grant it Jesus is my plea. Daily walking close to Thee; Let it be, Dear Lord, let it be." Let me briefly point you to some things that can mean a closer walk with Jesus in your own life. #1. Walk in the word of God. Study God's word. Pray as you study and seek to rightly divide it. Do not study the Bible in an attempt to prove what you already believe. As you study God's word, let God teach you what He means by what He says. Then seek to be obedient to the word of God. #2. Walk in the church. Attend church regularly. Be a member of a good church that preaches and practices the word of God. You will have a better understanding of God's word. You will find fellowship with God's people. You will help to strengthen the cause of Christ in the world through the church. #3. Walk in godliness. Seek to live according the high standards taught in the Bible. Let your light so shine that people may see God working through you and glorify God the Father in heaven. #4. Walk in faith. No matter how bad conditions get in your life, trust God to work it out to your good. #5. Walk continually. Do not quit serving the Lord. Do not slow down. Keep on keeping on serving the Lord as long as you can. If it get to the place that you cannot do the things that you used to do, find something else that you can do, but keep on serving the Lord as long as you live. #6. Walk in prayer. Remember that the arm of the Lord is not so short that He cannot reach you to help you. Neither is the ear of the Lord so dull that He cannot hear you. Make thanksgiving a big part of your prayers. Make your requests things that would be in keeping with the Lord's will. #7. Walk in surrender. Surrender your will to God's will. Let the Lord have His way with you. Stop doing the things that you know displeases Him. Start doing the things that you are not doing that you know He wants you to do. Keep doing the things that you are already doing that you know is pleasing to Him. I can assure you of one thing. You will never be disappointed in the Lord. You will never have cause to regret that you walk with Him. Just believe in His word, trust in His power, bask in His love and walk in His way. Conclusion: